Love Hurts Tour

Love Hurts Tour

Tour by Cher
Tour program booklet
Associated album	Love Hurts Mermaids
Start date	April 15, 1992
End date	November 1, 1992
Legs	2
No. of shows	16 in Europe 8 in North America 24 Total
Cher concert chronology

The Love Hurts Tour was the third concert tour by American recording artist Cher.^[1] The tour supported her twenty first studio album, Love Hurts and the soundtrack, Mermaids. The tour reached Europe and North America. It played in arenas and followed the previous sold-out Heart of Stone Tour.

Background

Encouraged by the reception of the album Love Hurts, the European smash single "The Shoop Shoop Song", and after the performance of "Could've Been You"^[2] at Top of the Pops^[3] – considered as a tour preview, Cher performed six shows as a tour preview at the Sands Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[4] After the promotion of the album on various American TV shows (like Late Night with David Letterman, Dame Edna Show, In Concert and others...). Although Cher toured Europe extensively, she performed a limited tour in the United States. The tour was originally set to commence in March 1992, however, this was postponed until April 1992 due to illness.^[5] During an interview, Cher apologized to spectators stating, "I am very disappointed that we had to postpone these shows and I apologize to all my fans who bought tickets."^[6]

In comparison with her previous tour, the show was less elaborate, but more controversial for the clothes and the religious symbols used. At the center of the stage there was a big dry tree with branches that extended to the two sides of the stage. There were also brick-like columns and on top of each there was a religious symbol: a serpent pierced, a stylized fish that the first Christians drew in the catacombs, a cross, the symbol of peace, and the heart of the Ex-voto (which was also used for the first controversial cover of the album Heart of Stone). Above, hanging on the right, there was a black angel, naked, with big golden wings. Since the tour was rock centric, many of her popular songs were not performed. Several covers performed including: "Many Rivers To Cross", "Fire", "Love is a Battlefield" and her recent number one hit in the UK "The Shoop Shoop Song", from the film Mermaids.

Costumes

Fashion designer Bob Mackie created nine unique ensembles for the Love Hurts Tour, repeating the same Leather/Dominatrix style of the Geffen-era. On this, Cher used some clothes already used in previous tours or for public appearances. The first, is for the performance of "We All Sleep Alone" and "I Found Someone" where Cher wore clothes with holes and paillettes and the black curly wig. For the first song she added a black leather jacket. This dress was previously used in "The Black Rose Show" and in the "I Found Someone" music video. During the performance of "After All" Cher wore an Ice Queen fur coat with sequined designs and pointed hat. This was used in the Heart of Stone Tour. The last one was similar to the dress she wore when she attended the Academy Awards and won her award for Best Actress in 1988. This was used for the performance of "Many Rivers to Cross" and was a dark, sparkly, and transparent dress.

All the other dresses were used only for this tour. For the first part of the show, Cher wore a suit. The jacket was always open to show a top in lace with long and transparent sleeves. Cher also had a red curly wig and wore many pearl necklaces. After the second change, Cher wore a lace baby-doll dress, with the black smooth wig or the black curly wig and performed "Love and Understanding" and "Save Up All Your Tears". During the country portion of the show, she wore a bondage corset, black boots, and black trousers. She also used the black curly wig, and sometimes a straw hat. For "Love Is a Battlefield" she wore a dress with a Roman Soldiers look and she used a long black wig. After that Cher performed her hit song "If I Could Turn Back Time" and wore a leather bondage outfit with a curly black wig. Finally, for the encore, Cher wore the same white baby-doll dress with wavy wig.

During the European and North American shows the costumes remained the same, except for the night of Halloween in New York, where Cher for the first songs wore a witch dress with a twisted bodice and a black transparent skirt. For the performance she also wore a white and black wig. The same wig was also used for the "If I could Turn Back Time" performance.

Source:^[7]

Concert synopsis

In the beginning of the show, a screen projected her life: from her family, to her television, music and film career. After that, the screen went up, and she descended from a platform and began to sing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". From here she moves into "Bye Bye Baby", "We All Sleep Alone", "I Found Someone", "Love and Understanding" and "Save up All your Tears".

When the song ended, the screen came down and showed some scenes of her most famous films. Then she once again descended from the platform and did "After All". After a fast change she performed "Many Rivers To Cross".^[8]

After an instrumental song, began the country part of the show. She sang "Fire" and "Just like Jesse James". Then she did "Love is a Battlefield" and "If I Could Turn Back Time". After those songs she had the first encore and performed "Love Hurts" and "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" and ended with the second encore performing "The Fire Down Below". The second encore was only done on a few dates. Generally, the setlist didn't change during the tour, but sometimes Cher replaced some of the songs with covers, or her old songs.^[9]

In Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City – New Jersey, shows the customs had changes were less skimpy clothes than was being used on tour. The opening songs Cher used a basic model, Love and Understanding had changed wig, the shoop shoop song was dates in which he used the smooth wig (like the cover of the album Love Hurts) and the wig Video Clip Sae Up All Your Tears. She used clothes 80's show in Las Vegas (Caesar's Palace show from 1981 to 1982) to new song.

Opening acts

• Thomas Brill (Düsseldorf)^[10]
• Monique Spartalis (Copenhagen)^[11]
• Split & Sonja Kimmons (Zurich)^[12]
• The Fingertips (England)^[13]

Set list

1. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
2. "Bye Bye Baby"
3. "We All Sleep Alone"
4. "I Found Someone"
5. "Love and Understanding"
6. "Save Up All Your Tears"
7. "After All" (performed with Paul Mirkovich)
8. "The Way of Love"
9. "Many Rivers to Cross"
10. "Fire"
11. "Just Like Jesse James"
12. "Love Is a Battlefield"
13. "If I Could Turn Back Time"
14. "Love Hurts"
15. "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)"
16. "Fire Down Below"

Source:^[9]

Additional notes

• During her show at the Zénith de Paris in Paris France; Cher performed "Love on a Rooftop" and "You Make My Dreams".^[14]
• During her show at the Wembley Arena in London, England; Cher performed "Fires of Eden" in lieu of "Bye Bye Baby". During the same show, "Could've Been You" was included in the setlist.
• During the North American leg, Cher performed "The Way of Love" in lieu of "Many Rivers to Cross". Additionally, a cover of Elvis Presley's "One Night" was performed at select dates in lieu of "Bye Bye Baby"

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
Europe
April 15, 1992	Berlin	Germany	Deutschlandhalle
April 20, 1992	Hamburg		Alsterdorfer Sporthalle
April 24, 1992	Paris	France	Zénith de Paris
May 1, 1992	Glasgow	Scotland	Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
May 3, 1992	Birmingham	England	NEC Arena
May 4, 1992
May 6, 1992	London		Wembley Arena
May 7, 1992
May 9, 1992	Brussels	Belgium	Forest National
May 10, 1992	Düsseldorf	Germany	Philips Halle
May 11, 1992	Frankfurt		Festhalle Frankfurt
May 14, 1992	Zürich	Switzerland	Hallenstadion
May 16, 1992	Copenhagen	Denmark	Tivoli Concert Hall
May 18, 1992	Stockholm	Sweden	Stockholm Globe Arena
May 19, 1992	Gothenburg		Scandinavium
May 27, 1992	Frankfurt	Germany	Music-Hall
North America[15]
October 23, 1992	Atlantic City	United States	Copa Room
October 24, 1992
October 25, 1992
October 27, 1992	New York City		Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden
October 28, 1992
October 30, 1992
October 31, 1992
November 1, 1992

Cancellations and rescheduled shows

March 21, 1992	Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark	Falcon Theatre	This concert was postponed to May 16, 1992 and rescheduled to the Tivoli Concert Hall
March 23, 1992	Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden	Stockholm Globe Arena	This concert was postponed to May 18, 1992
March 25, 1992	Gothenburg, Västergötland, Sweden	Scandinavium	This concert was postponed to May 19, 1992
March 26, 1992	Oslo, Norway	Oslo Spektrum	Cancelled[16]
March 28, 1992	Brussels, Belgium	Forest National	This concert was postponed to May 9, 1992
March 30, 1992	Vienna, Wien, Austria	Wiener Stadthalle	Cancelled[16]
April 1, 1992	Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany	Festhalle Frankfurt	This concert was postponed to May 11, 1992
April 2, 1992	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Köln Sporthalle	Cancelled[16]
April 3, 1992	Munich, Bavaria, Germany	Olympiahalle	Cancelled[16]
April 5, 1992	Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Maimarkthalle	Cancelled[16]
April 7, 1992	Bern, Kanton Bern, Switzerland	Festhalle Bern	Cancelled[16]
April 9, 1992	Paris, Île-de-France, France	Zénith de Paris	This concert was postponed to April 24, 1992
April 12, 1992	Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Philips Halle	This concert was postponed to May 10, 1992
April 15, 1992	Berlin, Germany	Deutschlandhalle	This concert was postponed to April 15, 1992
April 16, 1992	Hamburg, Germany	Alsterdorfer Sporthalle	This concert was postponed to April 20, 1992
April 18, 1992	Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands	Ahoy Rotterdam	Cancelled[16]
April 21, 1992	Belfast, Northern Ireland	King's Hall	Cancelled[16]
April 22, 1992	Dublin, Ireland	Point Theatre	Cancelled[16]
April 30, 1992	Glasgow, Scotland	Scotland Exhibition and Conference Centre	Cancelled[16]
May 27–31, 1992	New York City	Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden	These concerts were postponed to May 30–31 and June 4–6, 1992,[17] then later postponed again to October 27–31, November 1, 1992
October 18–20, 25-27, 1992	Atlantic City, New Jersey	Copa Room	These concerts were postponed to October 23–25, 1992[18]

Personnel

Production

• Tour Manager: Bill Sammeth / Charlie Stuart Gay
• Producer: Richard Wechsler^[19]
• Executive Producer: David Kelly^[19]
• Stage Designer: Jeremy Railton^[19]
• Lighting Design: Live Light INC.^[20]
• Cher's Personal Trainer: Angela Best^[21]
• Costumes Designer: Bob Mackie and Maggie Barry^[22]
• Musical Direction & Choreographer: Doriana Sanchez^[23]

Band

• Guitar: Dave Amato^[24]
• Drums: Ron Wikso^[25][26]
• Keyboards: Paul Mirkovich and Dave Vanacore^[27] and Scott Gorham^[27]
• Keyboard Technician in Atlantic City: Peter Wiltz^[27]
• Background vocals: Patty Darcy Jones^[28]
• Supporting Vocals: Dava Amata and Paul Mirkovich
• Dancer: Bubba Carr,^[29] Aaron Cash,^[30] Michelle Rudy Mirkovich,^[31] and Trish Ramish^[31]

References

1. Kaplan, Renee (24 May 1992). "This Week". Newsday.
2. "BBC – Top of the Pops – Videoclips". BBC. Retrieved 2009-03-29.
3. "Could've Been You" live music video on YouTube
4. "Cher DK about the Love Hurts Tour". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
5. Williams, Jaennie (14 November 1992). "AIDS grips Liz's ex-daughter-in-law". USA Today. p. D2.
6. "Bronchitis forces Cher to postpone 5 shows". Chicago Sun-Times. 1992-06-10.
7. "Love Hurts Tour Gallery Costumes". Cherlove.net. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
8. "Love Hurts: Germany : by Eliud". Justplaincher.net. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
9. "Love Hurts Tour, Germany 1992". Cherscholar.com. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
10. "Künstlerliste". Konzert-bilder.de. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
11. "Monique Recordings Performances". Eric-photo.dk. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
12. "SPLIT & SONJA KIMMONS von 1984 bis 1994 – Swiss Jazz Funk Soul". Soulmates.ch. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
13. "Live Gig Review". Bebopdaddies.com. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
14. Putti, Laura (1992-04-26). "Cher – Voce e corpo ma solo per adulti" (in Italian). Repubblica.it. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
15. "Cher's Shows Rescheduled". The New York Times. 1992-06-09. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
16. "Love Hurts European Tour". Turning Back Time (booklet). Cher. Santa Monica, California: Geffen Records. 1992. p. 2. CHERCD1.
17. "Cher Postpones Shows". The New York Times. 1992-05-30. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
18. Spatz, David J. (1992-07-13). "Cher to begin new concert tour with Atlantic City stop". Press of Atlantic City.
19. "Entertainment Design Corporation". Entdesign.com. Archived from the original on August 2, 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
20. "Live light concert". Livelightent.com. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
21. "Angela jewelry". Angiebest.com. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
22. Turk, Rose-Marie (1992-08-28). "Barry's provocative fashion scores big with entartainers". Eugene Register-Guard.
23. "Doriana Sanchez Works". Msaagency.com. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
24. "Dave Amato Tours". Daveamato.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
25. "Ron Wikso official site". Ronwikso.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
26. "ENTERTAINER DETAIL: The World Classic rockers". Nationalacts.com. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
27. "Touring History". Peterwiltz.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
28. "Patty Darcy Jones Photo". Patricia-darcy-jones.memory-of.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
29. "Page about Bubba Carr". Xceltalent.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
30. "Long Beach Ballet Summer Program". Longbeachballet.com. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
31. "Patty Darcy Jones Photo". Patricia-darcy-jones.memory-of.com. Retrieved 2009-07-09.